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ghstudio

By ghstudio,
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Gracie115

Gracie115

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Could say the same thing in reverse; it's a racing certainty that not everyone who fails to use the hand sanitiser has an allergy like yourself.

 

Many times I have seen people in front of me entering buffets/dining room walk straight past the sanitisers, and when challenged they have had the stuff squirted on their hands with out any protest, so no allergy there then.;)

 

 

No doubt, but assuming the person is being inconsiderate or whatever term is not right, you just don't know and SURE there are those that just don't care but there's no way of knowing who "they" really are.... that's all I'm saying...

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ghstudio "Live from...." Rare

ghstudio

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yes, elites and I believe suites get priority tendering tickets and meet in a separate location. We never had to wait more than 3 minutes to be told to go to the tenders. It worked very well.

 

Well...they do listen. I mentioned that the food is not served hot in Blu and since then the plate has been almost burning hot when anything is served. I haven't tried the poached eggs again, yet. I have not complained about anything...I've mentioned it with a smile....for what it's worth. Overnight stays have had the gangway open all night...they don't close down. Food in Blu is still on the salty side...not sure that my mention of being too salty got to the right ears....will try again. They are not checking for food being brought on board...I brought back some tropical fruits today and they could care less.

 

I was a bit annoyed that we signed up for pataya on our own....just a bus to/from Pataya.....only to find that there is a company at the terminal that runs shuttle busses for $12 pp RT. Celebrity charged $26 for the same, with lack of flexibility. There are no taxis at the Bangkok port...but there is wifi for $1 an hour...most popular place in the terminal.

 

comment on the 11th floor aqua cabins. I've now heard from two people in two different cabins that they have been showered with soot or white flakes. I've also heard the the smoke on the port side is very noticeable on the 11th floor port/rear cabin balconies....so caution.

 

Still not sure about aqua vs select dining and a CC cabin on our next m-class cruise. I keep hearing about noisy tables near waiter's stations, warm tables, tables where the engines thump sounding like drums. Best if you read a lot of reviews on this but make sure you are reading about the m-class ships.

 

what haven't I mentioned. Laundry is it's usual efficient self with everything folded when it returns...they still use paper laundry bags which is tough when you have a lot of laundry or want to take advantage of a one bag special.

 

We booked both the last cruise and this cruise through the same TA with the same perks on both. On the last cruise we got a page of special offerings because we were with a "group"..but nothing on this cruise. I have to find out if we got "group" rates on both cruises from our TA.

 

Blackjack tournaments are $25 pp to enter; texas hold'em tournaments are $60. Both have cash payouts to first and second place.

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ghstudio "Live from...." Rare

ghstudio

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I actually wrote this yesterday (before the note above)...but I don't think I posted. If it's a duplicate hopefully the moderators will delete or just igore....

 

After all the cruises we’ve done in aqua, I decided to be brave and order the mystery, always available, “airline chicken” on the blu menu….and I have a picture that I’ll post when we get to fast internet. It is indeed a chicken breast with the first joint of the wing sticking up….a nice sized portion. Chicken was moist with a sauce (salty). It probably didn’t help that I had the onion soup first which is also salty but this is the first time that, after dinner, I had to go to a bar and ask for a glass of water….twice.

 

Onion soup….yes, I must have hit the mother-load last night because I actually had onionS in my onion soup….now if it were just hot so the cheese was melted and not congealed, that would have been the old celebrity onion soup. Most of the food served in Blu is warm, not hot…you can tell that the plates were warmed, but by the time it reaches you, it’s not hot…it’s just warm. This is different on the s class ships where the galley is right next to blu and food comes hot….it’s a design problem, not the fault of the cooks/servers on this ship. They do have to adjust egg cooking times because by the time a 3 minute egg reaches you, it’s a five minute egg. I mentioned this to the chef today and tonight’s food was hot and was served on hot plates. Hope it continues.

 

Entertainment last night was lively, colorful and the theater was full…after the theater a crowd walked towards the casino and I was hopeful. Alas, most just passed thru but a few stayed and there was a texas hold em game. The craps table remained empty as did most everything except one $5 blackjack table. If you like to gamble alone, this might be a good cruise for you.

 

Speaker this AM on Thai food….interesting….just skimmed the surface, but with a varied background audience, that’s about all she could do. They had a tasting/demo of the specialty restaurants with some samples….of course to promote dining in those restaurants….which everyone should do, if they haven’t tried them.

 

We did find the elevator with the missing buttons by accident this morning…not really a problem. Many of the elevators announce the floors or say doors closing, others don’t…not a serious problem. The public bathrooms have seat covers that you can use. The one I saw was pretty much what others have described to me in the women’s room….the cover didn’t close so if you wanted to take a cover, you had a good chance of getting the entire lot in your hands. Pretty basic maintenance that isn’t being done, IMHO.

 

Our new captain talked on the PA this AM and he hasn’t hit anything so we think we may have a winner 

 

A new (?) wine event today….for $20, you could drink as much as you wanted of 12 wines for an hour…and they were decent wines. They called this “world wine tour & silent auction”. I just can’t drink that much at 2:30pm, but there were many taking part. It certainly was a price performer.

 

GH

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eldercruser

eldercruser

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GH - since you didn't mention any problems I'm assuming the Bangkok disembarkation went well regarding the issuance of passports and the ability of all pax to get off the ship in a reasonably timely manner. This seemed to be a real problem in December.

 

Thanks for the continued updates and enjoy Vietnam.

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ghstudio "Live from...." Rare

ghstudio

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Perfect poached eggs this AM….they can do it!! Of course, by now they know me so the blu head waiter is making sure that everyone does good, plates are hot, etc. But I’m hopeful that maybe things will improve for everyone.

a) The hotel director and his assistant are seemingly everywhere now….they were on the dock just watching things yesterday when we left Bangkok and they are around the ship.

b) I continue to be impressed with how everyone working for celebrity smiles and says hello or good morning. They really are making a difference by doing this.

c) Elite cocktail party is wonderful in Cosmos…there is enough room. They pass two types of hors d’oevers…one platter of hot and one platter of cold…and they are the best I’ve had on Celebrity. The wait staff is also right on top of things, getting drinks, cleaning the tables, just being friendly and stopping to talk. It’s almost as we are one big family…probably the best elite party experience we’ve had on any ship.

d) Maintenance is ongoing…they were painting the hull in the past two ports, scraping and painting even today at sea. Of course they can only maintain so much. The chair in our room with rollers doesn’t roll on the carpet; the curtains are a pain to open/close, etc….those are beyond maintenance…they require someone to actually buy replacements.

e) I’m not sure when people are eating dinner on this cruise, but we haven’t had any wait at all in Blu 7:15-7:30…and the current Blu Matre’d is terrific, friendly and helpful.

f) The sommelier in Blu is less overworked and now comes by to offer to pour more wine and occasionally even chat. On the last cruise, he was just swamped.

g) Entertainment last night was a percussionist who played an electronic xylophone/marimba. Very talented….it sounds like it wouldn’t be interesting, but he introduced what can be done with electronics without getting into MIDI (the connection protocol). He sort of played up that the capability he was using was brand new….which was a real stretch. The specific mallet pad he was using is new, the sound modules and technology linking everything have been around for 20+ years…I know, we owned an earlier model of the instrument J I’m nit picking here….it was worth going to see him...I enjoyed it.

h) We are moving at flank speed J about 25 mph and the seas continue almost flat. In the almost three weeks we’ve been on the ship, there has been only one day when you knew you were on a ship because there was enough rolling that you had to be a little careful walking. Unless you are hyper-sensitive, I can’t imagine having to wear a patch or take anti seasick precautions.

i) Not sure if I mentioned that they aren’t checking for food being brought onboard. I have a bag of fresh tropical fruit sitting next to me that I purchased in Phuket and still have some of the Bali wine I purchased. It hasn’t gotten worse sitting open….it wasn’t all that good to start with…it was just fun to try it.

j) Hint: (probably belongs in the ports of call section). While it isn’t really safe to eat street food in this part of the world (Singapore might be the exception), the shopping malls almost all have a floor dedicated to food. They offer the same and much better food choices with sample plates of everything available so you can order by just pointing to the dish you want. It’s prepared right there, in sight…and the food is just outstanding. Beware the bowl of extra peppers to add to your thai dish….they are lethal hot (and I love hot). Most dishes are under $4 so if you are hungry or want to try different things, it’s a great place to go for lunch/dinner.

k) As an example of prices in Phuket….a silk scarf was 200 baht and they wouldn’t bargain in the indoor shopping malls; we found the “night market” which is open during the day as well and bought them for 150 baht. You could buy them in the terminal shop for 300 baht, no bargaining. (30 baht to the $). We didn’t bargain all that hard for the 150 baht…just used the “make an offer and walk away” technique.

l) We found a large food market and purchased some local (sealed) condiments…curry paste and such….for almost nothing. Easy to pack and take home. We try to buy hot sauces or similar in each country…but read the label to make sure they are made there….many aren’t.

m) If visiting excessively hot cities/sites, pack a towel from the bathroom to help remove perspiration…it really helps.

n) ATM’s are readily available, but all we’ve found charge about $5 for a transaction, even though they are bank ATMs. Not sure I’m saving anything except my “bank” theoretically pays bank fees. We’ll see how well that works. I have just changed any money left when leaving a country at guest services….which costs a few dollars in exchange rates but is better than trying to change it at home. Just part of the cost of the trip.

GH

also no problems with passports in Bangkok

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CruisinMaterial

CruisinMaterial

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GH - That's incredible news on the Thailand passports! It sounds like Celebrity has really figured out things with the itinerary and the hiccups have been worked out. I enjoy reading your reports. If you happen to come across any of the people who do the Cambodia over land tour whilst in Vietnam I would love to hear what they had to say about it! :) Thanks!

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bigbenboys

bigbenboys

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Thanks for the update. Glad to here things are getting better. As I was on the Jan 20th cruise. There were 3 things that I didn't see. I did not see cloth towels in the public bathrooms. Back in Sept we had them on the Eclipes. Has Celebrity made a change? Or is this a Millie only thing? The other has to do with sorbet. Now being at the center of our earth I did not spend that much time at the pool. I did not see sorbet served around the pool. Did I miss it? We had select dining. I remember getting sorbet on formal nights to clean the palate in the MDR. I dont remember this on our last 2 cruises where we had select. Is this because we were in select dining? The other note was at bingo. We brought our own bingo dauber from our last cruise. On the Millie 1/20/13 cruise they said they did not get there shipment of daubers to sell. Did they get a shipment of daubers? Richard

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ghstudio "Live from...." Rare

ghstudio

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can't comment on sorbett...haven't had it and haven't missed it. Visas have been a non problem although arriving in Vietnam this AM, we didn't get our passports back until about 9.

 

NOTE: The only people who need to carry their passport in Vietnam or get a visa (whether on the ship or before the cruise) are those who are staying overnight. If you are doing day tours only, you do not need a visa...the ship will arrange a group visa and you won't need to get or carry your passports with you. Said another way...if you aren't staying overnight, just let celebrity handle the visa...don't waste your money on multiple entry visas or anything else.

 

We are having an incredible time in Saigon...it is Tet eve....we are in a 5 star hotel directly overlooking the main festivities on a street closed to cars...filled with people and everything is decorated with flowers. We have just a wonderful view of the parade of events...and we're about to go out for dinner and then doing whatever until the fireworks at midnight. It's incredibly good timing and thanks to our tour operator, smile tours, we have a terrific hotel. On the flip side, most stores are closed...it's a major holiday. Of course the other minus may be that since we are directly on the street and there is loud music, we may never get to sleep....we'll see.

 

GH

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Blue Lagoon

Blue Lagoon

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Thank you so much for keeping us informed GH especially when you had to do it off the ship. Who is the new Captain? We sail Apr 11 and we are looking forward to having some of the problems of sailing in Asia solved.

 

 

It seems that Captain Patsoulas is back at the helm onboard Millenium.

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ghstudio "Live from...." Rare

ghstudio

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we had an incredible night....our guide took us to a pancake restaurant and we all ordered/ate together....wonderful meal..then back to the main event, flower street....thousands of young people looking at the flowers...flowers everywhere in tremendous arrangements...everyone polite, what a terrific scene/memory. Then at midnight the fireworks....15 minutes of the most beautiful fireworks display I've ever seen....they made NYC and Disney fireworks pale....no breaks, just the most incredible bursts of colors at all levels continuously...with some hearts and some star fireworks thrown in. You could hear the crown cheer for many of the displays. Unforgetable night....and yes the noise died down and we slept like logs from the day's events. Even the water puppet show, very tourist of course, was terrific. Today we are going to watch some of the dragon dances...right in front of the hotel again...we are in the heart of things. If you ever get a chance to visit Saigon on Tet....do it.

 

The folks who did just the day trip to Saigon and didn't stay overnight last night really missed a once in a lifetime experience.

 

GH

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Texed Holiday Sharing Rare

Texed

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If you ever get a chance to visit Saigon on Tet....do it.GH

 

Well, I visited Viet Nam during the Tet offensive. But, it wasn't so nice in Khe Sanh. :D

Glad to know you can have great fun there now.

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Christine Frances

Christine Frances

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Well, I visited Viet Nam during the Tet offensive. But, it wasn't so nice in Khe Sanh. :D

 

Glad to know you can have great fun there now.

 

There were quite a few Vets on our cruise to Vietnam on Azamara. The couple that were on our private tours booked this cruise because he felt he was ready as enough time had passed and he mostly wanted to show his wife around. He was a little quiet/tense as we got off the ship in Saigon but he soon was excited to be our unofficial guide. He really enjoyed his drink at the Rex:D

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Texed Holiday Sharing Rare

Texed

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There were quite a few Vets on our cruise to Vietnam on Azamara. The couple that were on our private tours booked this cruise because he felt he was ready as enough time had passed and he mostly wanted to show his wife around. He was a little quiet/tense as we got off the ship in Saigon but he soon was excited to be our unofficial guide. He really enjoyed his drink at the Rex:D

 

That is nice to hear. Thanks for posting. :)

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